Aldi "Gender Neutral" Parent and Child Parking Bays Which Been Repainted After Complaints

[CarolinePooter]

AIBU to suggest that all the newly painted stick figures be upgraded with both boobs and curly moustaches, so as to be EVEN MORE inclusive?

That's offensive to people who cant grow moustaches

I can if I stop waxing.

Also, I think they should add a dog, cos that would look cute.

Or a cat, just in case.

This is the one in Sevenoaks?

But where it's repainted the 'skirt' now looks like a cape So I could go there , and either be Superman/Woman/Girl/Person or The Woman From The Scottish Widows advert .

Sorry, forgot to make clear, they are NOW gender neutral. Before, they were offensive because the parent figure wore a skirt. So now Aldi are discriminating against kilt-wearing Dads! They are just making it worse.

I was just saying to DH the other day that it's funny how women are only ever the "default" when it comes to parenting-related stuff. I guess we should just put man-symbols on everything as default, because men just can't identify with anything that looks female, whereas women already have to identify with the male default all the time.

Also, I know the Highways Dept are less likely to be swayed by modern trends, but I wish to be reassured that the old people crossing sign remain unchanged. It is an uncanny likeness of me and DH.

I was just about to say that. What about all those dad's who wear skirts? My poor DH, Sheila, is devastated

I mean, is it really that much of a stretch of the imagination for a man to see the female parent symbol and deduce that it also symbolises him? Or is he scared of getting "girl-germs" if he parks there or something?

I've read about this and as far as i could tell there weren't actually any complaints.

I think this is a case of a company trying to show how inclusive they are by making a big show of fixing a problem that wasn't there!

You're bothered about this?

Jeez.

Last time I looked, the word 'parent' was gender neutral.

I can't imagine many dads not parking in the parent and child space just because the stick figure has a skirt?

Russell, exactly. If they're too daft to realise it includes them, they are probably not a good person to be trusted with the shopping!

I think it's good actually. It pisses me off slightly that the baby change area in our supermarket has a picture of a woman. The parking spots have a picture of a woman. It just feeds into the subconscious that changing babies, dealing with kids trailing along shopping are 'women's work'.

I don’t see the issue. It benefits women (in a collective sense) enormously to not be seen as the ‘default’ parent. Anything which bucks against the trend of assuming that all primary carers are women, or that parenthood is actually just motherhood, is a good thing.

Alright it’s maybe daft to go to the effort of repainting but I’m surprised that the idea itself is being scoffed at.

Fair point, but why does it actually offend people to the point that they complain? Serious question.

I’m surprised Mothercare hasn’t been under attack yet! But then, it does sell a lot of stuff for mothers (pregnancy, birth and breast feeding related).

Well some people just like to find something to be offending about tbh, something is lacking in the life they have I would imagine.

However why should the sign have a skirt, some men do go shopping with a child and I don’t think any role says one must have a vagina to use a parent and child space. So I don't see an issue wth the sign being changed.

The parent parking bays in my local Lidl look like they've been painting someone who has spent too much time on Minecraft. They barely look human.

You're bothered about this?

Jeez

They're not bothered, they're fishing for transphobes.

I wouldn’t be offended enough to complain myself, but I’m not upset that someone else did. We do have to chip away at these little endless sexisms - on their own they aren’t a big deal, but collectively they contribute to an environment which is hostile for women.

It can feel like making a big fuss over nothing when each little protest is viewed in isolation, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a collective impact which is much more significant and meaningful.

My daughter refuses to call it 'the green man' and 'the red man' at a pedestrian crossing because it could easily be a woman wearing trousers :)

"Gender-neutral" is slightly misleading here, isn't it? I haven't seen the original story, but it sounds like if there were any complaints it was about sexism i.e. why is it always women who are depicted caring for children as if it's their job alone? It's not exactly a "gender-neutral" issue. If that is what it is, I can't say I would have complained or necessarily deemed it worthy of a repaint, but I don't object to the odd dad being depicted looking after the children rather than the default mum.

When my dniece was young she objected to me accompanying her into the women’s toilet because unlike her glamorous skirt-wearing self I clearly belonged in the jeans-wearing toilets